What the? Google does an Apple and sends out a virus!

by Alex Zaharov-Reutt

Friday, 10 November 2006

In another rare misstep, Google has unknowingly copied Apple in the worst way possible – by accidentally sending out a virus to some of its users. It's yet another sign that we all need to be ultra vigilant about security – if not even the great Google is immune, who is?

Of course, some Mac users like to think they’re the only ones left who are totally immune to all the world’s digital ills (with most actually very smart people who care about security), but this time around it’s Google that has inadvertently fallen foul of the malware writers by sending out the Kama Sutra virus (or worm, depending on whom you speak to) in three postings to the Google Video blog, which has over 50,000 subscribers.

The Kama Sutra virus is also known as W32/Kapser.A, W32/Kasper.A@mm, MyWife, CME-24, Nyxem.E, Blackworm and other unsavoury sounding names that the anti-virus researchers come up with.

Why they all can’t come up with a system to give each new virus or other malware a uniform name across companies is beyond us. We can only publicly appeal that they all get their act together to make it happen.

Whatever you call the virus/worm, it’s reasonably nasty, and you’d have to spend some time recovering your system were you ever to be infected by it.

Normally sent and received via email, as it is a mass mailing worm, it likes to overwrite system files on local hard drives on day 3 of each month, as well as deleting peer-to-peer programs installed on your computer and the registry keys of anti-virus software you have installed to ease its further propagation across the Internet.

However despite it using the lure of offering pornographic content, it was first discovered in January 2006 and quickly became a non-issue for anyone running up-to-date antivirus software. Google’s accident has given it a burst of publicity this worm does not deserve.

Kama’s creators must be chuckling at the added notoriety that they have accidentally gained in the past few days since the story first broke.

Google offered no explanation as to how the virus infiltrated its systems or snuck past whatever anti-virus/malware solution they are using to secure their PCs, although Google did quickly apologise and promised they wouldn’t let it happen again.

"On Tuesday evening”, announced Google, “three posts were made to the Google Video Blog-group that should not have been posted. This has now been addressed and fixed. Still, some of these posts may have contained a virus called W32/Kapser.A@mm--a mass mailing worm. If you think you have downloaded this virus from the group or an email message, we recommend you run your antivirus program to remove it."

Google provided a link to their excellent Google Pack software, which among quite a nifty collection of free software also includes a version of Norton Anti-Virus good for 6 months before requiring payment to continue receiving anti-virus update definitions.

Recently Google suffered the embarrassment of its official blog being hacked, with a fake entry detailing Google’s supposed ending of a click-to-call trial with eBay, while not too long ago, Google accidentally deleted its own blog. Oops. Thank goodness for backups! {moscomment}

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